1. Field of Invention
This invention relates generally to manual exercisers suitable for athletic or therapeutic purposes, and more particularly to an articulated exerciser formed by left and right hand weighted clubs hinged together at their ends, the exerciser when held by the hands of a user being capable of undergoing both simple and complex motions which bring into play and develop many of the muscles in the muscular system associated with the user's shoulders, arms and wrists which are uninvolved in conventional hand-held exercisers.
2. Status of Prior Art
In contemporary society, large-scale mechanization has sharply reduced the need for an expenditure of physical energy in the production of goods and services. Indeed, the aim of the typical invention is to provide a labor-saving device to supplant human effort. But while modern man has been relieved of the Biblical injunction to earn his daily bread by the sweat of his brow, this has been a mixed blessing; for the resultant inactivity has given rise in affluent societies to serious obesity problems and has impaired the ability of many persons to carry out normal physical tasks with a reasonable degree of efficiency.
To remediate many of the physical fitness problems of the sedentary individual, various forms of exercisers have been contrived that are designed to develop muscular strength and endurance. By muscular strength is meant the measurable strength of muscles as determined by a single maximum contraction, and by muscular endurance is meant the ability of muscles to perform work for a given time period.
Muscles consist of many fibers held together by connective tissue and having the power to contract and relax and thereby perform the movement and the vital processes of the organism. The voluntary of striated muscles which are subject to the human will and control the body are attached by tendons to the skeleton. They constitute much of the body weight and appear as lean flesh.
Muscular power represents the ability to release maximum muscular force in the shortest time. Muscular strength is the strength of muscles as determined by a single maximum contraction, while muscular endurance is the ability of muscles to perform work for a given period of time. One may develop muscular power, strength and endurance by the use of bar bells, but the manipulation of bar bells up and down and sideways does not engage all of the shoulder and neck muscles as well as the arm and wrist muscles, and may therefore result in uneven development.
Also in popular use are Indian clubs which are shaped like a large bottle or a ten pin and are swung about with one in each hand, mainly to strengthen the muscles of the arms. It is known (see U.S. Pat. No. 64,081-1867) to provide such clubs with adjustable weights which are axially shiftable along the club to change the moment of inertia of the club and hence the muscular strength required to manipulate the club. But the manipulation of Indian clubs has limited exercise value for the same reasons given in regard to bar bells.
Another drawback of Indian clubs, which are provided with cylindrical handles of uniform diameter, is that these handles do not afford a grip corresponding to that of a standard handled sports appliance such as the grip of a tennis racquet, a golf club, a baseball bat or a rowing oar.
A tennis player, for example, in order to strengthen those muscles which are primarily involved in this game, should use a hand-held exerciser which has the same grip as his racquet and is capable of executing similar movements, for then the resultant muscular development will be compatible with the requirements of the game. If, therefore, the tennis player uses conventional bar bells or Indian clubs to develop his muscles, the resultant muscular development will not be compatible with the muscles called into play when the exerciser later switches to his racquet.